quilting

Late Start to a Busy Day

January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 Wild Rose Quilter4 Comments

Today and tomorrow are my son’s days off so I’m not keeping my two littles and have my days filled with my own activities. However, I really overslept this morning. On the to do list is a workout, paperwork for our oilfield business, some stitching on a commissioned quilt for a client, and cooking up some venison. I’m new to that last one. My husband harvested his first ever deer on my family farmland, which I inherited a share of when my mom passed. I’ll share more on that as we go along here. It’s one of my favorite places on Earth. Today, the plan is to try chicken frying some back-strap. Check back later to see how this all ends up and how many things I actually get checked off my list. But first, I have a breakfast date with my hubby. Oh, and there’s a massage appointment scheduled in the afternoon for me, also. I have a feeling I’m not going to get everything accomplished that I wanted. That’s just a typical day for me though, lol.

In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful client quilt I got to do the longarm quilting on recently. One of my favorites from last year. Thanks again to Ruth Ann for trusting me with this treasure! This is all freehand and ruler work.

quilting

Orange

January 14, 2020January 16, 2020 Wild Rose QuilterLeave a comment

I loved this orange and white Irish Chain client quilt that I had the pleasure of quilting recently. My client asked me to keep the quilting simple. I decided an orange peel design would be perfect. Sometimes less is more and simple can be stunning. I was very pleased with the end result. I usually use a ruler to quilt continuous curve, but I had gotten my Intelliquilter installed right before this one came up for its turn on the machine. So, I programmed in the quilting path row by row and watched the IQ do its thing. It was fun and exciting to see it turn out.

It’s such a bright, uplifting quilt. One I hated to see go back out the door. I really need to make an Irish Chain for myself someday.

I’ll sign off with this beautiful sunset with a streak of more beautiful orange. Goodnight all.

quilting

Sunday Stitching

January 12, 2020January 14, 2020 Wild Rose Quilter4 Comments

Wow! It’s been awhile since I did a Sunday Stitching post. But, I’m trying to get back in the blogging habit and I did some stitching today, so here we go. My Mister wanted to squeeze in one more day hunting before deer season closes on the 15th, so I had the house to myself. I did quite a bit of multitasking. After over a decade of longarm quilting, I finally took the plunge and added an Intelliquilter computerized system to my A1 quilting machine. I am loving being able to stitch out an edge to edge while doing piecing work on another project at the same time. I used a panto called Toys from It’s a Quilt Thing to quilt this cute client baby quilt. It stitched out so nicely. My client brought me a denim quilt back with this one. That was a first for me and I was a bit concerned about having tension or thread breaking issues. Not one bit of trouble! My trusty A1 handled it just fine.

While the IQ was working away for me, I worked on piecing some more floating star blocks for a commissioned memorial quilt I’m making for a sweet lady that was recently widowed. Having lost a spouse myself, I know what this means to her. It’s going to be very scrappy looking, with a mix of fabrics from his shirts, a pair of shorts, and even some swim trunks. I am praying it all pulls together nicely in the end. This is such a special project.

I knew it was time to call it a day when I started sewing parts together upside down. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Un-sewing and re-sewing is not so much fun. Once I fixed my boo-boo I called it a day.

Have a marvelous Monday tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by.

pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts · stash busting

I just kept sewing yesterday!

September 6, 2009 Wild Rose Quilter14 Comments

By the time yesterday was done, I had worked a bit on FIVE different quilts. Well six, if you count the prep work on a customer top I’m fixing to start quilting. But I made a little bit of progress on five of my own WIP’s. Yay!

I made great headway on my Boston Commons. I have one more row like these, then adding white fabric around and between, a pieced border, and then I am going to add an additional plain border all around so I have some more space to quilt feathers in. The original pattern, which is by Darlene Zimmerman, ends with a narrow border of the the squares and white triangles.

While I was sewing Gracie’s Star together, and while I was piecing on the above quilt, I worked on my leaders/enders quilt, Oklahoma Backroads, and I had my embroidery machine running, cranking out some blocks for a red & white Christmas quilt.

And then, when I went to bed, I took my 9P & stripe quilt with me, and worked on knotting and burying some of the thread tails I left on it. I should have done it while I was going along on it…now it feel like I will never get them all done. 😦 I’m glad I decided to go back to a backtack before I finished. And I still have to bind it!

I did get my backing and binding picked out for Gracie’s Star. Now I just have to decide on which quilting pattern I want to use. I think it’s a bit dark & busy to spend a lot of time on custom, but a pretty allover will finish it off nicely.

The first part of this year I just kept starting new projects. Maybe this last part will be about finishing! I would like to finish these projects I have started with my stash fabrics!

pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts · sewing · stash busting

Stash Quilt Reporting

July 5, 2009 Wild Rose Quilter14 Comments

I don’t think my reports are about stash busting any more, but what I’ve done with my stash. I added 5 yards of Kona white cotton back to the stash, since I’m using what I had in my Boston Commons. That is a staple I like to keep on hand. I finished by sawtooth star blocks, finally. And, I think I might like them all together, after all. If you’ve been following my progress on them, you may remember this previous post, where I posted the ones I had finished together, and then divided into different color groupings and settings. Well, here is the whole lot of them, finished and laid out how I would sew them together, if I decide to follow the original pattern.

I think I do like it. My husband likes it. How about a poll?

To see how they looked divided into orange and no orange groups, click the link to the previous post, mentioned above. I’m curious to see which one wins. Doesn’t mean I’ll follow it, but I might!

quilt top · quilting · quilts · stash busting

Thankful Tuesday and Early Wednesday WIP

June 2, 2009June 2, 2009 Wild Rose Quilter13 Comments

I know it’s usually thankful Thursday, but I’m going early this week on some things. My Dad is doing much better. Everything seems to be resolving and doesn’t look like anything too serious is going on with him. Yay! My husband had some tests a week ago Friday, one involving what the doctor suspected was another cancerous mole. But it wasn’t! Yay! And while he was having that biopsied, he also had the blood test that screens for prostate cancer, and that came back normal, also. Yay!

And I’m thankful for all my blogging friends that sent prayers and kind thoughts. And thank you all for the encouragement you’ve given about my 9P & stripe! So many sweet comments. I appreciate them all!

I’ve been doing a bit of piecing on my star blocks again, but I don’t think they are going to end up in the pattern that was intended. I love the blocks, I love the fabrics, I’m just not loving them together. So, I think this project is going to go a different direction, which will require a bit of extra thinking on my part…lol. I think that it’s the orange fabrics not going with the reds…maybe. At least not when they are butted next to each other, like the pattern.

When I pull out the orange ones, I like it better.

And the oranges aren’t bad on their own.

But I’m still not really feeling it. Maybe it’s a value thing…I’m not really sure why I don’t like it, it just doesn’t seem to be working. But I know these block have the potential to be an awesome quilt, or maybe more than one quilt.

So, I looked closely at the fabrics, and notice that several share a similar green accent color, that happens to be very close the color of this bolt I bought to use for backing fabric. And I wondered, what if I set them on point, and used this green for setting blocks and triangles?

Or, sashing and setting triangles, with the blocks on point, which I think is my favorite.

Even like this, I don’t think the polka dots and oranges go with the rest, and will figure out a way to put them together, on their own. What do you think? Am I on a better track with this?

feather quilting · freehand quilting · longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts · stencil quilting

Wednesday WIP, 5-27-09

May 27, 2009May 27, 2009 Wild Rose Quilter14 Comments

More 9P & stripe…26.5 hours into it…y’all are going to get tired of seeing this one.

I’m not sure I am making all the right design choices…but, this is a learning project for me. A project to expand my skills and challenge myself, so I’m ok with that. For example, I’m not sure the large size setting triangle feather is working that well, but even so, I’ll probably just go forward with it. I’m having fun!

That scroll-y design is a Karen McTavish stencil. The setting blocks are stencils, as well, but I forgot to see who from. I’ll get that later, for anyone interested. I’m at work now, but remembered that I forgot to mention that.

feather quilting · freehand quilting · longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts · stencil quilting

Quilting Feathers, Feathers, & More Feathers

May 25, 2009May 25, 2009 Wild Rose Quilter17 Comments

First, I cannot let Memorial Day go by without stating my thanks and appreciation for all the brave men and women that have served, or do serve in the armed forces, to afford the rest of us the wonderful freedom that we enjoy. So many sacrifices they have made, many the ultimate sacrifice. And thank you to their families. Though saying thank you doesn’t seem enough.

With the crosshatching behind me, I got to start quilting feathers today. I love feathers. Love quilting them, love the way they look. I did not want to crosshatch the striped border, even though that would have matched the stripes in the interior. Instead, I chose this pretty stencil by Barbara Chainey. I’m liking it.

First, is the chalking.

Then the stitching begins.

Three hours later, one border done. (it didn’t feel like it took that long)

Much more fun that crosshatching. So, I guess I have about 9 hours left to finish the other three of these borders. This one is going to be on the machine for awhile yet. I have a plan for that little inner border that matches the setting triangles. I have a plan for the setting triangles. I have not yet decided on the very outside border…maybe swags. Maybe not. Maybe more feathers.

I took time out this morning to relocate this litte guy from the back patio, to the front flower bed, so he would be safe from Tuffy and Libby. I took the top off of Tuffy’s feeder to catch him with. The lizard was not happy about it…if he only knew, it really was for his own good. Tuffy would have caught him and eaten him, eventually. Libby would have just killed him. I like lizards.

Now he lives here. Plenty of cover and should find lots of bugs to eat.

fabric · one block wonder quilt · pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts

One Block Wondering

March 21, 2009March 21, 2009 Wild Rose Quilter18 Comments

Ok, so I’ve told y’all that I’m supposed to take a One Block Wonder class with the quilt guild, but it isn’t til April 18th. Who can wait that long, once they have the book already? Not me! I had to go ahead and do some playing. I finally felt like fondling some fabric again, and instead of working on one of the gazillion projects I already have started, I wanted to do something new. Maybe it’s spring fever. Since we are doing the octagon version at guild, I pulled out the original fabric from my stash, that I wanted to use, but didn’t have enough for the eight repeats needed. Since the hexagon version doesn’t use as much fabric, I have enough for it.

The fabric, with my new rotary cutter laying on it, just because I noticed that it matches…lol!

The first set of blocks:

This is so hard to stop working on, once you start. Each block is a little surprise. I can’t wait to see how the next row of blocks turns out, and how they look added into these. Not only are the blocks a surprise, but you don’t know what the quilt will look like, either, till you get all the blocks together, and start playing with them. Too much fun!

longarm quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts · sewing · stash busting

Sunday Stash Report

March 8, 2009 Wild Rose Quilter13 Comments

Wow, I went a whole week between posts. But it was a busy week with my day job, so there wasn’t much to say. Not that I could post about, anyway.

I do have changes to report in my stash this week. I busted 10 yards for backing, and it is just barely going to be big enough for my top. I knew it would be close, but I really want to use this fabric for the back of this quilt. It’s flannel, so I think there may have been a bit more shrinkage than I might have had with a regular cotton.

As you can see, it’s a real tight squeeze on the sides. I have plenty extra the other direction, though. I will make it work!

I also ordered 8 yards for a one block wonder class I’m taking next month, for quilt guild. I tried my best to find something suitable in my stash, but the only two that I thought would work, I did not have enough yardage. So I had to order some. It will arrive some time this week, but I’m going to go ahead and count it as incoming today.

So here’s my yearly totals.

Incoming Yardage to date: 8 yds.
Outgoing Yardage to date: 30.5 yds.
Total Stash Busted to date: 22.5 yds.

I also finished the binding on the memorial t-shirt quilt, and made the label. I just have to attach the label and it will be completely finished. I was able to use some of the scraps from the first quilt, made of his plaid cotton shirts, in the back of this one.